Slowly, Shirou opened his eyes, the sunlight filtering in from his window waking him. As he pushed himself up so he was sitting, his mind focused on the dream he had, on the memories he was reliving. After Heracles, or Berserker as he preferred to call him, died, things had changed, somewhat.

The greatest change was in Shirou's own attitude. To most, it wouldn't seem odd. Even to those that know him best, it wouldn't be strange. He mourned Berserker's passing. Don't get it twisted, he mourned when Kiritsugu died, as well as when Shinji did. What was odd was how it stuck with him.

Not as an idol, the living manifestation of his ideal, his dream. Nor as a reminder of his own failure to achieve that dream. But as someone to aspire to. A goal to be reached, a mountain to be climbed. A sign of strength. A... friend.

But Berserker's death didn't just affect him. Illya, who was arguably closer to the man, was left mourning for a long time after. While she would normally play it off with a smile, she would normally quiet when she thought no one was looking, taking a blank expression. In that way, Shirou's recent reminiscing about their father seemed to help her.

Getting out of bed and putting on his combat outfit, Shirou quickly glanced in the mirror. Over the year since Berserker's passing, Shirou's appearance has only inched closer and closer to Archer's own. After using Berserker's God Arc, the Erosion spread down his left leg and across his chest and face. While it wasn't as radical as his battle with Zouken, it was still a cause for alarm. Luckily, it wasn't the lethal iteration of the Erosion that burnt him through and through, but instead one that eroded just his skin.

After that, it was only in small, barely noticeable increments that more of his body underwent Erosion. Now, it covered his entire lower-body, as well as most of his chest and back. Only half of his face and hair had changed, leaving some of his red hair, and his golden eye stayed unchanged. From the Armlet on his right arm, his wrist had begun to erode as well, but his fingers and upper arm were still their original tone.

Looking away from the mirror, Shirou made his way out of the room, letting himself be distracted by the stray thoughts. Over time, he has grown closer and closer in appearance to Archer, even growing as tall as him, almost 20 centimetres. It never really bothered Shirou, that he was slowly becoming a clone of someone else. If anything, he was bothered by Archer's appearance.

His slicked-back white hair, his tan skin, his smirk, and his red coat. All of them were things he had seen long before he ever met Archer personally. His earliest memory, after the fire, in the hospital when he met Kiritsugu. He was asked for his name, and he came up empty, when his mind flashed to who is now identifiable as Archer. It was his stark-white hair that gave Shirou his name, after all.

If Archer had been with him, even back then when he only just got his Armlet, before his God Arc was even requisitioned, then why was his appearance so bizarre? As far as Shirou had seen, God Arcs seemed to take forms that were of importance to the wielder. If that's the case, why was Archer just an older him? How was he even formed so early?

These questions, which Shirou only considered when he wanted to be distracted, buzzed around Shirou's head as he left the elevator. Walking towards Hibari, he put his thoughts aside and asked for a mission. Luckily, there was one mission available. It was set in the City of Mercy, with the opposing Aragami being a single Vajra.

With a quick thank you to Hibari, Shirou made his way into the God Arc Storage Bay. Within, he quickly made his way over to his partner, Unlimited Blade Works. They themselves hadn't changed much in the year since Berserker's passing. The only difference would be on the topic of the general enhancements the God Arc had received, the blades and bow being reforged and the shield being reprogrammed for higher efficiency.

As he unlocked his God Arc's containment unit and took Unlimited Blade Works into his hands, a slight thought nagged at him. Almost without meaning to, he turned to look at the back of the Storage Bay, his eyes naturally making their way to one of the many dust-covered God Arcs within a containment unit. It was a black and jagged Buster Blade, formerly belonging to Berserker. Like he did so often after Berserker's death, he slowly made his way over, drinking in the appearance of the God Arc.

Once in front of it, Shirou lay down Bakuya and, slowly, extended his right hand towards the Buster Blade. Laying his palm upon it, Shirou waited for something. Anything. But nothing happened. Don't misunderstand. The God Arc was still alive, at least as far as the actual Aragami core goes. If used, it could still cut and devour Aragami. But it no longer contained that higher functioning part of itself, the heart that could relate to its wielder.

It was actually quite awkward when it came up. After the Einsbern incident, as Shirou and co. were leaving the Port with the deceased Berserker and his God Arc in tow, Shirou was struck dumb by the lack of response he felt from Berserker's God Arc. For a moment he thought it had somehow died, despite him being taught that God Arcs don't die if their wielders die. But he was then able to feel the thrum of Oracle within, revealing signs of life. Yet no matter how hard he searched, he couldn't find that manifestation of the God Arc anywhere.

The group that Sakaki had sent to help them return to the Den were surprised at the sight of Shirou holding Berserker's God Arc, especially seeing as it wasn't obviously broken and dead. After some inquiry, Shirou revealed that he could wield other people's God Arcs, albeit at a cost. Turns out, that was never included in the report submitted for the Zouken incident, which lead to a long talk with Sakaki about it, and the process involved. There were later experiments involving taking measurements of Shirou's vitals as he sympathized with both a familiar God Arc (Excalibur) and a foreign God Arc (Rin's Jeweled Sword).

Shaking his head so as not to fall deeper into thought, Shirou grabbed Bakuya and made his way out of the Den, towards his pick up location.

Waiting at the little drop-off point he normally began his missions, Shirou allowed himself to ponder on his earlier thoughts. When was Archer formed? Why was he formed as he is? Shirou knew he could just ask, but that would deprive him of one of his easily accessible distractions. His hair, his clothes, even his general form and name was known to Shirou before the two met in person. Almost like magic.

Crackle.

Without any sign of surprise, Shirou raised his hand to his earpiece.

"Where is it Hibari?"

Not reacting to his sterner tone of voice, she answered,

"It should be appearing at Point M any moment now. Good luck."

With a grunt, Shirou took his hand off of the earpiece and grabbed his God Arcs. Hoisting them upwards, Shirou took a few steps back before jumping off of the small cliff, letting out a more subdued,

"Trace On."

Touching down on the dirt of the destroyed church clearing below, Shirou turned to the left and made his way forward. Very quickly, he saw the Vajra moving towards the dirt clearing in Point C, in Shirou's direction. Entering the clearing, Shirou quickly changed his God Arcs to Bow Form and let off a single shot forwards the Vajra. Striking its head, the Vajra roared in pain and anger before rushing to intercept Shirou.

It began the battle with a roar, channeling its Oracle into spheres of electricity that it launched towards Shirou. As Shirou, who had returned his God Arc to Blade Form, dodged around the targeted spheres, the Vajra leapt towards him, trying to take him down while he was distracted. Shirou, seeing the attack, dodged away from the expected strike zone. As the Vajra landed, Shirou ran right towards it. Nearing its fore-legs, Shirou released a basic combo.

A diagonal strike with Bakuya, a horizontal one with Kanshou, and a final pierce from both lead to the leg Shirou was targeting, the left one, to collapse, the bond almost breaking. With the Vajra now stunned, Shirou moved toward the head and began to unleash a flurry of strikes upon it. A slash to the left, another to the right, a cross-slash leading upwards, then a sudden downward thrust of the blades, digging into the Vajra's head.

But as Shirou's blades fell upon the Aragami, the Vajra was able to push past its almost broken limb and forced itself upwards, causing Shirou's final strike to fall short. With a roar, the Vajra swung out with its right, uninjured hand, batting Shirou further into the dirt clearing. Rolling, Shirou landed onto his feet, facing the Vajra which slowly turned to face him. Taking in his surroundings, Shirou realized that now was a good time to try and develop that move. He and his opponent were in a wide clearing, with almost nothing to get in the way. If the Vajra moved forward, it would be perfect.

For once luckily for Shirou, the Vajra began to move towards him, despite the pain it was clearly in. Raising his arms in a cross, Shirou waited for the perfect moment to strike. It was then, as the Vajra was almost a meter away from him, that he enacted his plan.

Over the year since Berserker's death, sympathizing with God Arcs weren't the only experiments Shirou underwent. He also experimented with his ability to channel Oracle energy through his blades. He found himself to be capable, and even capable of excelling at, enhancing his strikes with Oracle. The only limitation of this is Unlimited Blade Works' ability to handle the Oracle without shattering. As the God Arc was upgraded, the amount he could safely channel had increased.

But the more important thing was his ability to release that Oracle energy in bursts, like Saber's Excalibur Strikes, or even his own Caladbolg. He learned how to apply the concept of his ranged attacks to his Blade Form via practice and asking Saber for advice. While he couldn't produce large slashes like Saber, he was capable of making dense blades of Oracle which he could send flying.

The attack he was about to enact was inspired by the attack Berserker used on Jubstacheit, Nine Lives. It takes the efficiency of Nine Lives deadly strikes, and combines it with Shirou's own combat style of drawing the enemy into his pace. But the centrepiece of the attack was Shirou's use of the aforementioned Oracle blades he creates.

Shirou closed his eyes and felt for the flow of Oracle within him. Tracing it, from his Armlets to his heart, he directed that flow towards his God Arcs, feeling as they were filled and seemed to strain against the influx of energy. The screams of a year past had reduced to groaning from the Arcs.

Opening his eyes, he flung out his God Arcs and, in the same instant, released the pent up Oracle energy as two neon-green blades, arcing towards the oncoming Vajra. As the Oracle blades sliced through the Vajra's face and shoulders, halting the Vajra in its charge, Shirou's mind was brought back to the words Shirou had read only recently.

Spirit and technique, flawless and firm

It was a gift he had received from Sakaki, a 'learning guide' he called it. After he was made aware of Shirou's interest in various mythologies and their heroes, he occasionally supplied him books or poems about those legends. The one he received had been about the blades Kanshou and Bakuya were based on, Gan Jiang and Mo Ye.

Specifically, it was a page out of what was likely a textbook on Chinese history and mythology. The page detailed the emperor's perspective on everything, from ordering blades be made, to receiving only Gan Jiang, or Kanshou, and realizing that Mo Ye was withheld from him. What stuck out most to Shirou was mention of an engraving on Gan Jiang's hilt, and the addition that it was likely only half of the poem, with the other half being on Mo Ye. Unfortunately, the rest of the page was illegible. That engraving was what Shirou was mentally reciting.

As the Vajra stalled from Shirou's attack, Shirou followed up by stepping forward, within strike range, and bringing down both his God Arcs in a cross, taking out the Vajra's eyes. As the Vajra flinched back, Shirou brought his blades back up into a ready position. The Vajra had enough time to shake its head and wonder at the lack of a follow-up before it barely caught the sound of whistling.

Suddenly, it felt pain cut through both of its side at once, a deep slash in the left side of its neck and a less deep but more debilitating strike to its right leg, causing the bonds within to break and the Vajra to collapse. It was another beat before the same seemed to happen to its other side, a deep cut to the right side of the neck and a shallow one to the left leg.

Of course, Shirou was able to see what truly occurred. As the Vajra seemed to hear the whistling of the Oracle blades, one of them came from behind and impaled its right leg. In sync with that, Shirou brought Kanshou deep into the Vajra's neck and more of the engraving came to his mind.

Our strength rips the mountains

The same applied in the next moment, with the other Oracle blade impaling the Vajra's left leg and Shirou bring Bakuya down on the neck. However, instead of knowing the next line of the engraving which wasn't in the page, Shirou thought on what he felt would have been there.

Our swords split the water

As the Vajra lay on the floor, now bordering on death, Shirou raised both of his God Arcs and, yet again, channeled Oracle into them. This was, however, the most difficult part of the attack. No matter how many times Shirou tried, he could never properly conduct the next step. It was this part that took the most inspiration from Nine Lives. Instead of releasing a blade of Oracle from his God Arc, he was trying to enhance the strike radius, and therefore the damage, of his God Arc.

It was, however, several magnitudes harder for him to create a constant extension to his God Arcs than it was to create an Oracle blade to expel from his God Arcs. As he stood there, arms crossed and with an expression of pure concentration, a slight flickering could be seen above his Arcs. It was slight, but it was there, neon-green and unstable. Slowly, ever so slowly, Shirou channeled Oracle up and out of his God Arcs and held them in place until, eventually, his Arcs were topped by shimmering neon green blades that made the Biting Edge God Arcs more in line with the size of a Long Blade.

Now breathing a little heavily after the exercise which took a few seconds, but felt like minutes to him, Shirou looked down upon the Vajra and raised his arms a little higher, before bringing down his God Arcs.

Our voices...

As he did, however, he felt the Oracle atop his God Arcs become more unstable, losing all cohesion. Suddenly, as his God Arcs struck the Vajra, the Oracle blades exploded, destroying the Vajra's head and sending Shirou flying.

It was at the last moment that Shirou separated the Oracle blades from his God Arcs, allowing them to remain wholly undamaged. Standing from his little tumble, Shirou looked upon the fallen Vajra before sighing.

"So close...," he muttered to himself. Moving towards the Vajra, he began to Devour it, before preparing to leave the field.

As he returned to the Den, he subconsciously began to trace his way towards Sakaki's Office, and Illya's room by proxy. It was only after he exited the elevator on the Laboratory Floor that he realized what he was doing.

He began to hesitate. Should he go in and visit Illya, while he might still be upset about her condition, and make her upset in kind? Or should he leave, break the promise that he made to himself to visit Illya as often as possible, and leave her lonely?

As the decision made him struggle, his choice was made for him by the sudden opening of Sakaki's door, showing Shirou...

"Shirou!"

Sakaki, standing slightly hunched over and as close to panicking as the boy had ever seen him. In his hand was a tablet with various nondescript data readings on it.

"...Yes, Professor?"

Thanks for reading this big ol' rewrite. I just didn't like how the original version sat with me. Sorry for taking almost a month to upload, but I should be able to get back into the groove now, but it'll probably take me half a week to a week to release another (decent length) chapter. Reasons for my lateness include enjoying having free time to play games again, and fear of rejection.

I will finish this story, even if it kills me.

Thank you to Dante Fernandez, Leon38532, Straider, and 28th00 for favouriting or following, and thank you to sawtooth44 again and Guest for reviewing.

P.S. I don't have any hard feelings, Guest. If anything, your words really gave me an eye opener. I knew this story wasn't great, but I didn't want it to be bad either. So I took a break, reread my story, and might be able to improve from there. I will finish this story, don't worry. And maybe make another abomination.Thanks.

Goodbye.

Word count: 2875